Uneven growth trend may continue as carriers remove capacity from transpacific trade lane.
The neighboring ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have seen continued, albeit slightly uneven, growth in volumes of containerized cargo in the first six months of 2018.
The Southern California ports handled a combined 8.26 million TEUs in the first half, according to the latest figures from their respective port authorities, a 4.1 percent increase from the same six-month period in 2017, a year in which both set records for cargo throughput.
Individual volumes at the ports were trending in opposite directions, however, with Long Beach terminal volumes climbing 14.5 percent year-over-year to 3.95 million TEUs, while L.A. volumes slipped 3.9 percent to 4.31 million TEUs.
The first-half growth was boosted by a June in which the two largest cargo gateways in the United States saw their overall throughput rise 6.2 percent to 1.48 million TEUs compared with the same month a year ago.
At the Port of Los Angeles, a 2.9 percent increase in loaded import boxes and a 1.4 percent uptick in loaded exports was offset by a 9.7 percent drop in empty containers, leaving overall volumes down 1.1 percent for the month at 723,141 TEUs.
For the port’s 2018 fiscal year, which ended June 30, total volumes were down 0.4 percent to 9.17 million TEUs, surpassing 9.1 million TEUs for just the second time in port history.
Long Beach terminals, on the other hand, saw their overall throughput jump 14.2 percent to 752,188 TEUs for the month, as loaded inbound and outbound volumes rose 14.5 percent and 14.3 percent, respectively, and empty volumes grew 13.6 percent compared with June 2017.
So far during Long Beach’s fiscal 2018, which began Oct. 1, its total volumes have grown 15.9 percent to 5.93 million TEUs compared with the same fiscal 2017 period, including nearly 3 million TEUs of loaded imports, up 15.4 percent year-over-year; 1.2 million TEUs of loaded exports, up 11.2 percent; and 1.73 million TEUs of empties, up 20.6 percent.
And according to Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, the uneven growth trend may be poised to continue into the second half of 2018, as carriers continue to rationalize services and remove capacity from the transpacific trade lane between Asia and the United States.
“We closed our fiscal year on June 30 with 9,169,779 million TEUs,” he said. “The consistently high container throughput over the past 24 months speaks to our unmatched capabilities, and we are grateful to our terminals, labor force and supply chain partners for their efforts that made this milestone possible.
“Looking forward, a continued shuffling of alliance services in the San Pedro Bay, coupled with potential impacts from recently imposed tariffs, provide a level of uncertainty and potentially softened trade flows through our port during the second half of 2018,” Seroka said.
Southern California port volumes up
